For immediate release: January 23, 2013

For more information, contact: Julia Blixrud Association of Research Libraries 202-296-2296 jblix@arl.org

Washington, DC—The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) has released a pre-publication version of an article on “The State of Large-Publisher Bundles in 2012,” which will be featured in the forthcoming Research Library Issues (RLI) no. 282 (Spring 2013).

In this article, authors Karla Strieb and Julia Blixrud report on the results of a recent survey of journal licenses in ARL member libraries. The authors conclude that there are “ongoing strains in libraries’ relationships with publishers and in their ability to maintain electronic journal bundles in difficult financial times.” They found that journal collections have become smaller and more tailored, and that stronger licensing language is needed in the clauses that are most important to research libraries. The authors note that licenses need to allow libraries to: make new uses of the licensed content, share information with peers about licensing terms, and rest assured that licensed content will be available in the future.

The final version of this article will be published in the spring, in the complete issue of RLI 282. RLI is freely available from ARL Digital Publications.

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is a nonprofit organization of 125 research libraries in the US and Canada. Its mission is to influence the changing environment of scholarly communication and the public policies that affect research libraries and the diverse communities they serve. ARL pursues this mission by advancing the goals of its member research libraries, providing leadership in public and information policy to the scholarly and higher education communities, fostering the exchange of ideas and expertise, facilitating the emergence of new roles for research libraries, and shaping a future environment that leverages its interests with those of allied organizations. ARL is on the web at http://www.arl.org/.